Level 1

0 points

i7 iMac: Windows XP Drivers Fail (Video and Audio)

So I just received my new 27" i7 iMac w/ ATI Radeon 4850 HD video card, its wonderful on OS X, but the Boot Camp drivers for Windows XP SUCK.

I use Windows for work and gaming, here are my issues.

Problem 1) The Graphics drivers "ATI Radeon HD 4850 v. 8.661.0.0" occasionally fails (blue screen that reads something like: "ATI Driver tried accessing invalid memory point." The driver also flashes these yellow/blue dots all over my screen occasionally, and will even freeze the computer for about 5 seconds before the screen turns off and then back on (the driver crashes and reboots itself). Terrible... Unfortunately, ATI does not have any new drivers for this video card on their website, great. Solution?

Problem 2) The sound drivers - BootCamp installs 2 one from ATI v. 5.0.50000.17 (which simply does not work at all - goodjob apple). And one from CirrusLogic (Driver Version 1.0.0.26) Which works for sound, but not the microphone. So the issue is, that I cannot use my microphone at all. I've tried installing older bootcamp (2.0) SigmaTelXP drivers, but with no luck (they don't support the hardware). Obviously windows cannot find drivers for anything, since its an apple box.

Needless to say, having just spend $2,500 on a brand new computer, I'm dissapointed Apple couldn't have TESTED their drivers before putting them on a disk. Anyone know how I can fix these 2 issues?

27" i7 iMac ATI 4850 HD, Mac OS X (10.6.1), Windows XP SP3, .NET 3.5 Framework

Posted on Nov 16, 2009 8:10 AM

44 replies

tudorior

Level 1

6 points

Nov 24, 2009 10:00 AM in response to zigkthx

SOLVED!!! the graphical glitches. I have had no problems and I have been playing Unreal Tournament 3 and NFS Shift for hours.

All you have to do is go to the ATI website.
Get the latest drivers for the 4850

Now they come with an installer, and that won't do it for whatever reason.
So, just open the file they give you let it unpack itself, and then upgrade manualy the driver through the device manager, and "Have disk" to the folder where the driver is( *.inf file).
Then reboot, and VOILA!!

Hope this works for everyone.

zigkthx Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 24, 2009 10:39 AM in response to tudorior

Could you give us a link? ATI doesn't have the drivers on their site. They have the 4800 and the 4890 drivers, but no 4850... lol

Ritchie9

Level 1

0 points

Nov 24, 2009 2:04 PM in response to zigkthx

Well I don't want to sound as if I have sour grapes, but lucky you - at least you finished your install and have something to work with. In my case with iMac 27 inch, 8 Gigs memory, I cannot finish the install before the screen blanks out. I have tried XP Pro 64, Win 7 in both 32 bit and 64 bit. I have tried re-installing several times, same result. I can see Win seems to have finished installing, judging from looking at the files from within the Mac. I have also tried starting in Safe Mode. Same result.

I believe it is the high performance graphics card. But how do I get anfy new drivers onto Windows if I cannot even get to the final screen?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Ritchie9

Level 1

0 points

Nov 24, 2009 2:19 PM in response to manndave

Hello Manndave. I see you have Fusion working. Can you install ALL Win programs on this system? I am thinking of VMWare Workstation 7. I have some old VMWare clients using XP Pro. I assume Fusion can not itself open these clients, right? So they need a VMWare Workstation host.

Any help much appreciated.

tudorior

Level 1

6 points

Nov 24, 2009 3:12 PM in response to zigkthx

Here is the link to the XP Drivers for everyone:

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/radeonx-xp

Again, one must download one of these (preferably the driver download only). Then, execute the exe, and notice where it gets unpacked.
Then you go to device manager, vidoe adpter, and propreties for the 4850. Then you go UPDATE DRIVER, and choose specifically form that folder where the driver was unpacked. You will be looking for an *.inf file. Once selected, choose the Radeon 4850 specific driver in the choices and it will install the new drivers, and you will need to reboot.

If anybody needs more clarification (pretty basic stuff if you know xp) let me know.

Happy gaming.

UT 3 is amazing maxed out at 2500x1440. and NFSnShift is gorgeous

Hope this

Nov 24, 2009 6:04 PM in response to zigkthx

Regarding this i7 iMac with HD 4850 video....I have mostly video artifacts (usually cyan color lines or checkerboard pattern or blocks.) But tonight it has blacked out and restarted the video a couple of times, and once while in a browser the driver stopped working and it jumped into default VGA mode which required a reboot to correct. I had the sound problem, but selecting Cirrus in the sound settings brought it to life. I too am disappointed as the dual-boot feature is important to me. I talked with Apple tech support and they asked me to let them know if I figure anything out that helps. It sure feels like a bad video card but the thing runs great in Snow Leopard so we all vote it is a bad driver. Are there any utilities we could use to change timing on this card while in Windows? I do love this computer (I can see myself in it!!!) lol

alb.ng

Level 1

0 points

Nov 25, 2009 12:29 AM in response to tudorior

Tudorior,
mate I tried driver update u suggested. Rebooted. Set the res to max again (2560x1440). Guess what, the pink checkers blocks are flashing back again. 4 times so far within 30 mins. So I lower the res back down again to 1920x1080 and no more flashes again for the last hour. Thx for helping though. It's a good try. Sound record is still no good as well. Any one?
Thx

tudorior

Level 1

6 points

Nov 25, 2009 9:44 AM in response to alb.ng

To : alb.ng

when you go to the video adapter driver in device manager and click on properties what is the exact verson?? What is the number.

Let me know, as you might not have updated the driver. If your driver is 8.661.0.0 then whatever you did you didn't install the latest driver.

I am in leopard now, so I can't see the driver version, but will message later here with the version.

And btw, still is rock solid after 2 days of constant gaming, and trying out brand new game demos.

tudorior

Level 1

6 points

Nov 25, 2009 10:04 AM in response to tudorior

Ok, so I'm back in XP.
So the driver info should be as such:

Driver Provider: ATI Technologies Inc.
Driver Date: 11/4/2009
Driver Version: 8.671.0.0

Unless you have this driver number, whatever you did you did not update.

This info is on the second tab from the ATI Radeon HD 4850 Properties.

On this same window, you have the "update driver" button
You click on that. Then you go " No not this time"
then "install from a list of specific location(Advanced)"
then " Don't search. I will choose a driver to install"

IMPORTANT:

Then the hardware update wizard will show you: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4850 and The ATI Radeon HD 4850

NONE OF THESE IS CORRECT. You have to click the button "HAVE DISK"
Then browse to whereverthe ATI Driver unpacked. For example, for me :

C:\ATI\Support\9-11 xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enuDriverPackagesDriversDisplayXPINF

Then a whole list of ATI Cards will show up.

Choose the first ATI RADEON HD 4850

GO "next"

Your driver will update, and thenyou will have to restart.

After rebooting, you can go check to see what driver version you have, and hopefully enjoy your computer at full resolution, and no crappy blue and red colored patterns.

zigkthx Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 25, 2009 12:40 PM in response to tudorior

tudorior wrote:
Ok, so I'm back in XP.
So the driver info should be as such:

Driver Provider: ATI Technologies Inc.
Driver Date: 11/4/2009
Driver Version: 8.671.0.0

Unless you have this driver number, whatever you did you did not update.

This info is on the second tab from the ATI Radeon HD 4850 Properties.

On this same window, you have the "update driver" button
You click on that. Then you go " No not this time"
then "install from a list of specific location(Advanced)"
then " Don't search. I will choose a driver to install"

IMPORTANT:

Then the hardware update wizard will show you: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4850 and The ATI Radeon HD 4850

NONE OF THESE IS CORRECT. You have to click the button "HAVE DISK"
Then browse to whereverthe ATI Driver unpacked. For example, for me :

C:\ATI\Support\9-11 xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enuDriverPackagesDriversDisplayXPINF

Then a whole list of ATI Cards will show up.

Choose the first ATI RADEON HD 4850

GO "next"

Your driver will update, and thenyou will have to restart.

After rebooting, you can go check to see what driver version you have, and hopefully enjoy your computer at full resolution, and no crappy blue and red colored patterns.

tudorior,

I just did exactly what you said to do and it worked, thank you! So, this is definitely the fix for the video card issues, now we just need updated sound drivers that will work with the mic!

tudorior

Level 1

6 points

Nov 25, 2009 1:01 PM in response to zigkthx

Well I am glad that worked for you.
I hope this works for other people as well.

T

Ritchie9

Level 1

0 points

Nov 25, 2009 4:08 PM in response to tudorior

Hi all

Spoke to a senior techie at Apple Support this afternoon. Apple are well aware of these problems and are working on a fix. Apparently they have been waiting on MS to release certain technical features, these are now available. They hope for a proper fix before the end of the year. This fix will not be released as a general upgrade. It will need to be DL from Apple Downloads.

Read about it here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3920?viewlocale=en_US

Hope this helps.

tudorior

Level 1

6 points

Nov 25, 2009 9:03 PM in response to Ritchie9

Actually, that link talks about Windows 7.
People in this thread are having issues with Windows XP.

The only thing left to fix in XP seems to be the internal microphone...

T

alb.ng

Level 1

0 points

Nov 25, 2009 11:26 PM in response to tudorior

Hey man, you are RIGHT! I put me driver in a directory structure too deep and my 1st attempt yesterday actually didn't work. I moved the ATI drive to c:\ and redid it just now and it's looking good! I am on 8.671.0.0 now at max Res.
Thanks Mate. well done.
Now, the mic......

Ritchie9

Level 1

0 points

Nov 28, 2009 3:46 PM in response to tudorior

to tudorior: Of course you are correct. But since that post, I have now managed to install XP x64 no bother, meaning the blank screen just did not happen on my third attempt. Full resolution and the drivers came off the Mac install CD. I still have no sound and no Internet. But at least I can read my old tax documents which is all I wanted Win for. Stupid Windows keeps nagging me that I have no virus protection and updates are not enabled, duh!. What a wonderful way to remind me why I changed over to Apple!

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i7 iMac: Windows XP Drivers Fail (Video and Audio)